Domestic Financing For Education, Pushing Back On Debt And Austerity

Global Education Summit Side Event

Date/Time: 26^th July at 2 pm BST

Organizers: ActionAid, Global Campaign for Education, Open Society Foundations,

REGISTER HERE: https://bit.ly/3hdi3Se

Domestic Financing for Education, Pushing Back on Debt and Austerity

Debt and austerity policies affect the financing of education. Countries that spend over 12% of national budgets on debt servicing have cut public spending in recent years – and the number of countries in this situation is rising rapidly, especially since Covid. Present proposals for debt suspension (the G20 DSSI) do not go far enough – efforts need to:

• Reach more countries
• Cover all creditors
• Support longer-term suspension or cancellation

Indebted countries often have to turn to the IMF whose policy advice tends to focus on fiscal consolidation – widely known as austerity. One of the flagship austerity policies is to hold down public spending especially through cutting or freezing public sector wage bills. In most countries, teachers are the largest single group on the wage bill so these constraints actively undermine the capacity of countries to pay teachers more or recruit more teachers – even where there are desperate shortages.

Debt and austerity’s negative impact on education financing affects the most marginalised and vulnerable learners first. What can GPE and education advocates do to engage in more strategic discussions at national and international levels around debt and austerity?

Speakers

• Chair: Madeleine Zuniga – Vice President, Global Campaign for Education
• Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky – Former UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights
• Isabel Ortiz – Director, Global Social Justice Programme
• Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
• Christopher Yalukanda, Research Director, Zambia National Union of Teacher/Education International
• Refat Sabbah – GCE President, GCE/ACEA ‘Debt Cancellation for the Future of Education Campaign’, Palestine
• Monica Novillo, Regional Coordinator REPEM
• Mr. Tato Khundadze, Researcher, OSF/GCE new research: ‘Debt Relief and Education Financing’ in Georgia
• Irina Khantadze, Executive Director of the Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), Georgia